Shuppet Line/RSE
In '''Ruby', Shuppet can only be found on the upper floors of the interior of Mt. Pyre as well as on the summit of the exterior. In Sapphire and Emerald, it can be found on Routes 121 and 123 as well as in all areas, both interior and exterior, of Mt. Pyre.'' Banette is a Ghost-type from Generation 3, often highlighted for its exceedingly creepy Pokédex entry. This Pokémon doesn’t see much use, even after X and Y gifted it with a powerful Mega Evolution. The fact of the matter is, Hoenn has a severe lack of Ghost-types, and in Sapphire or Emerald, barring insane luck or Repel abuse, Shuppet’s probably going to be the only ghost you get. Once it evolves, Banette is its name, and smacking stuff with STAB Shadow Ball off base 115 Attack is its game. Banette’s most notable feature is making Tate and Liza, one of the most feared fights in the game, a cakewalk. Banette also makes a fantastic Wobbuffet exterminator. Any physical attacks you throw at it will hit hard, and Banette’s Ghost typing makes it immune to Counter. Although its mediocre defences and shallow move pool might deter you from using it, give a Shuppet a chance, train it right, and this little stealer of souls might just steal your heart. Important Matchups - Emerald = * Gym #6 - Winona (Fortree City, Flying-type): Unless you have a Banette at this point (in which case, holy over-grinding, Batman!), stay away. Sure, you can teach your Shuppet Shock Wave or Thunderbolt by TM, but its SpA is lackluster, and it’s incredibly frail. She has a Swablu, which is kind of pathetic, and Shuppet can take it on if you want to, so long as it has an Electric move. Pelipper doesn’t like electricity at all, but if it lives, and lands a hit, it’s going to hurt. Tropius will eat your hits, and Skarmory walls you, and will hit you hard. Don’t even mention the words “Shuppet” and “Altaria” in the same sentence, although if you’re feeling brave, you can have Shuppet burn it with Will-o-Wisp to neuter its Attack, before bringing in something with Ice Beam for the kill. It's still probably better to not do so, though, especially if Altaria isn't Winona's last Pokémon; it has Natural Cure, and it WILL set up Dragon Dance on you. * Rival (Lilycove City): Whether or not you have a Banette by this point comes down to your tolerance for overgrinding. If you do have a Banette, and you’ve taught it some TMs, it should do some work through sheer level advantage. If you taught it an Electric move for Winona, you can probably deal with Pelipper. Combusken can only hit you with Peck, so that’s nice. Grovyle has Pursuit, so steer clear. Everything else is best left to your other ‘mon. If you still have a Shuppet, keep it away from this fight. It’s still far too frail to do much of anything. * Tabitha (Jagged Pass Hideout): Tabitha isn’t Banette’s kinda guy. Stay away from the camels. They’re bulky, and a high Magnitude roll could be the end of your Banette; even Magnitude 7, a very common roll, is dangerous. Mightyena has Bite and Tabitha has a Zubat, also with Bite. Stay away with Shuppet, but you can make do with Banette, since it's just a Zubat. * Maxie (Jagged Pass Hideout): While Mightyena can’t touch you, it, like Tabitha’s, has Scary Face and Swagger. Having Banette fight it will get annoying fast. Crobat is exceedingly fast, and packs Bite to smack you, and Confuse Ray for shenanigans. Avoid it. Camerupt has STAB Earthquake. Banette is frail. I have no idea what kind of position you’d be in as such that you lack a Water-type three-quarters of the way through Hoenn, so USE YOUR WATER TYPE. (I hope for the love of all things logical that it's not a Luvdisc.) * Matt (Lilycove Hideout): He has a carbon copy of Tabitha’s Shenanigans-Yena, and a Golbat with - you guessed it - Bite. For Banette users, Matt turns the nope up to 11. * Gym #7 - Tate and Liza (Mossdeep City, Psychic-type): Before facing off against the so-called Murder Twins, ask yourself a question. Do I use my Shadow Ball TM on my Banette? If you have no other options, and are somehow unable to overgrind, the answer is probably yes. Shadow Ball Banette obliterates the twins. Banette deals big damage to Solrock and Lunatone, and if it doesn’t KO them, its double battle buddy surely will, especially if it’s a Pokémon with Surf. Because you have one. Claydol and Xatu are exactly as much of an issue to your murderous stuffed toy. This is where Banette shines. This is why you train one. As a side note: if you have a Mightyena or some other Pokémon that can take on the twins without trouble, then it might actually be wise to save your Shadow Ball TM. You will need it for Phoebe and you could use two carriers of the same move in that situation. * Maxie and Tabitha (Mossdeep Space Center, tag battle with Steven): This fight isn’t exactly kind to Banette. Tabitha’s Camerupt is the only thing you can reasonably handle, because it can’t do much to you. Otherwise, both Maxie and Tabitha have the infamous debuff Mightyena, and Maxie’s Crobat has Mean Look, which can trap you in against a Camerupt with Earthquake and a Golbat with Bite. Even with Banette’s access to Psychic and Thunderbolt, this battle isn’t a risk worth taking. * Shelly (Seafloor Cavern): Shelly has a Trollyena, and a Sharpedo with Crunch. Fighting her with Banette is not a good idea. * Archie (Seafloor Cavern):'''Archie’s Mightyena and Crobat are exactly the same as Maxie’s, so there’s no need to repeat the whole thing. Sharpedo might seem dangerous, but its only attacking move is Slash. Hit it with Thunderbolt, or a strong Normal-type move, and you should be golden. * '''Gym #8 - Juan (Sootopolis City, Water-type): Banette will do decently here with STAB Shadow Ball and super-effective Thunderbolt. Luvdisc is a joke defensively, but watch out for Attract and Sweet Kiss. Whiscash may have Earthquake, but it’s no Camerupt. If you don’t have a Grass-type handy, just smack it with Shadow Ball. Sealeo, while fairly bulky, will go down to a couple of Shadow Balls or Thunderbolts. He has a Crawdaunt, which has no Dark moves and a similar lack of SpD, which Banette can probably 2HKO with Thunderbolt, and a Kingdra. We all know that Kingdra is evil. It will Double Team. It will Resto-Chesto. It will make you want to never do another Nuzlocke. Its partial Dragon typing makes it neutral to Thunderbolt, so hit it hard with Shadow Ball before it starts Double Teaming. If your Banette has Shock Wave, use it to counteract the evasion hax, or use an X Accuracy. Or two. Or six. You sort of just have to smack Kingdra, and there are few better smackers than Banette. * Wally (Victory Road): Banette obviously tears Gardevoir to pieces with Shadow Ball. If you taught it Psychic, it can probably take Roselia, but watch out for Roselia’s Grass-type STABs, which come off a fairly high SpA stat. If you don’t have a Fighting, Rock or Steel-type, Banette can deal with Delcatty using a strong Normal-type move. It might have Faint Attack, but Delcatty sucks. You’ll be fine. Magneton and Altaria are best left to your Earthquake and Ice Beam users, respectively. * Elite Four Sidney (Dark-type): Using Banette against a Dark-type specialist? WAHAHAHAHA! What a funny joke! Seriously, though, don’t. And even though Shiftry, Crawdaunt and Absol lack Dark-type moves, they can hit you a lot harder than you can hit them. If you have Thunderbolt, you can probably take Crawdaunt, since it can only hit you with Surf. But NOTHING ELSE. Capiche? * Elite Four Phoebe (Ghost-type): Using Banette in this fight is a double-edged sword. If you can outspeed everything, it’ll be Super Happy Violence Fun Time in Banette Land, as you score OHKOs everywhere, but if you don’t outspeed Phoebe’s Pokémon, you’re not going to have a Banette for very much longer. Aside from that, watch out for Sableye. It’s not weak to Ghost, and can hit you hard with Shadow Ball, so hit it hard with another Pokémon. Depending on your level, the Dusclops may or may not be hard to defeat; in general, it is worth noting that their bulk is remarkable, and while you can Shadow Ball them for SE damage, they can do the same to you - and they are WAY better at taking hits than Banette is. * Elite Four Glacia (Ice-type): Banette can deal with the Sealeos. That’s it. Shadow Ball or Thunderbolt will hit them hard. Both Glalies know either Shadow Ball or Crunch, so anyone who thinks they’re clever by blocking the second Glalie’s Explosion with Banette is in for a world of Shadow Ball. Walrein will hit you hard, and is extremely bulky. Also, if you’re not overleveled, FEAR SHEER COLD. * Elite Four Drake (Dragon-type): If you don’t have an Ice Beam user, Banette is a decent choice for this fight. Unresisted Shadow Ball packs quite the punch. Banette can deal with Shelgon, and Kingdra can be smacked, à la Juan. But however strong Banette may be, don’t subject yourself to needless pain against Drake if you can simply use something with Ice Beam. * Champion Wallace (Ever Grande City, Water-type): Wallace’s Pokémon hit hard. As we know, Banette is bad at taking hits. Banette does, however, learn Thunderbolt. This can be used to destroy Gyarados with ease should you, for some unfathomable reason, lack an Electric-type. If you don’t have a Grass-type, hit Whiscash with a few Shadow Balls, same as with Juan’s. Everything else is either too bulky, or too powerful, for Banette to effectively KO them. Wallace is terrifying. With any luck, you’ve trained up better counters to his team. Despite all this, Banette definitely deserves its spot in your Hall of Fame. * Post-Game: We’re Nuzlockers! We don’t care about this stuff! }} Moves When you first catch your Shuppet, it’ll come with Screech (decent for softening up walls), Night Shade (okay), Curse (badbadbad), and Spite (not great). At level 32, it’ll learn Will-O-Wisp, which, despite Banette being more of an attacker than a supporter, can be useful for causing residual damage and shutting down physical attackers. At level 37, right before evolving, Shuppet gets Faint Attack. It’s worth picking up for now, but ends up being inferior to Ghost STAB in every imaginable way. If you decided against learning it, Banette will try to learn it again at level 39, although if you didn’t want it then, you probably don’t want it now. At level 48, Banette learns Shadow Ball. If you haven’t already taught it by TM, YOU WANT THIS. This will be your only STAB move, but it’s a GREAT one. This is the last worthwhile move Banette gets. At level 55, it gets Snatch which, despite what dozens of Michael Rosen YouTube Poops would have you believe, is not nice, and at level 64, it gets Grudge which is HAHAHA no. Things get better in the TM department. If you’re too impatient to wait for Shadow Ball, or just want to obliterate Tate and Liza, you can teach it by TM. You’re going to want to teach one of Return, Secret Power or Facade, so you can hit Normal-types. Having another strong physical attack is a very nice thing too. Banette’s Special Attack, while not nearly as good as its Attack, is still decent, so Psychic and Thunderbolt are both options. If you so desire, you can replace Thunderbolt with Shock Wave for extra PP and perfect accuracy, or augment it with Thunder for a high-risk, high-reward attack. Banette isn’t so great with setup moves, but if you’re using special moves, Calm Mind is an option for boosting its SpA, as well as its mediocre SpD. Just be careful not to take too many hits while setting up. Recommended moveset: Shadow Ball, Return / Secret Power / Facade, Psychic / Thunderbolt / Shock Wave, Thunder / Screech / Will-o-Wisp / Calm Mind (may benefit from having two special moves instead of one) Other Shuppet's stats Banette's stats * What Nature do I want? Anything that boosts Attack is awesome, anything that lowers it is not. You can afford to lose Special Attack the most, although it will limit your ability to use Banette’s special options. Anything that lowers Speed is bad, because you need that to live. Defense-lowering natures aren't great either, but packing more of a punch or being faster can matter everything in a pinch. * Which Ability do I want? Insomnia is the only ability the Shuppet line can get, but as abilities go, it's a pretty good one. Being unable to sleep can help with a lot of irritating Pokémon, such as the Oddish line. * At what point in the game should I be evolved? ''' As soon as is reasonable, which is probably by Lilycove. Shuppet is too frail to do much of anything. * '''How good is the Shuppet line in a Nuzlocke? Shuppet, due to its lacklustre move pool and frailty, can be tricky to train up, but once you have a Shadow Ballin’ Banette, it’s all worth it. Although it has its flaws, Banette hits things hard, and makes one of the toughest fights in the game a cakewalk. Yes, it’s frail, and yes, its usable movepool is tiny, but Banette does one thing really well, and that is hit things. Yes, it’s a hammer, but as hammers go, it’s hard to beat. * Weaknesses: Ghost, Dark * Resistances: Poison, Bug * Immunities: Normal, Fighting * Neutralities: Psychic, Dragon, Fire, Water, Grass, Electric, Steel, Rock, Ground, Ice, Flying Category:Ruby/Sapphire/Emerald Category:List of Evolutionary Lines with Completed Analyses